Two weeks passed, Sam and Colby were in Australia with their roommates and Brennen and I got into a fight about the morning at ihop. It turned out he did see Sam glancing at me and me returning them every once and awhile. I ended up sleeping at my place for the second week and him and I procrastinated speaking to each other.
Finally on Saturday I drove to his apartment building. Making my way up to his apartment, taking the stairs by two. I balled my fist and knocked on the door. He opened it up in his gym close, I guessed he was on his way down there.
"Can I please talk to you..." I said looking at his hard eyes. "Sure" he let me in and kept a stern look on his face.
"I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about this earlier than now..."
"Me too"
"I understand you're mad. But I think you're taking it the wrong way." I said closing the door behind me
"Really? So you did or did not stare at Sam with the goo-goo eyes you give me every morning?" I shook my head, but I knew it was a lie.
"Bull shit, Y/N! Don't lie!" He fumed with anger now. His eyebrows turned in and his face contorted and the anger scared me. I dropped my head and looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact.
"I'm not" I said in a shy, quiet voice to show I was scared.
"I hope you know he's coming back today, from Australia."
"I don't care." Brennen took my chin between his fingers and pulled my face up so my eyes locked with his. "Your a dirty liar" he said scolding me.
"Im no-" I didn't finish my sentence because a fist flew at my head and hit me in the eye.
"What was that for!" I yelled at him cupping a hand over my eye.
"Don't raise your voice at me." He said in a husk voice.
"Or what!?"
"I'll-"
"You gonna hit me again!? You know where I come from men that beat up women are little bitches. So I guess what I'm asking is... are you a little bitch!?" I yelled in his face ("Shameless" reference).
His face turned red and it looked like his head was about to burst open at any moment. He scowled at me and swung again, hitting my mouth. "Shut up" he said cracking the knuckles he hit me with.
My mouth was bleeding now. I spit blood onto his face and the fuming anger became worse. He tried to swing at me again but I ducked down and punched him square in the nose.
"Screw you" I said looking at him with teary eyes. Brennen had his hand over his nose, crimson leaking through his fingers and dripping to the floor.
I opened the door and turned my head toward him again, "oh and if it wasn't obvious... we are done." I slammed the door and walked to my car.
Yesterday I had gotten Kat's number at breakfast, I called her, "Hey Kat"
"Hey, how are you?"
"... not so good." I chuckled but not in a humorous way.
"What happened? Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm good, I just... I don't know. Could I come to your place? I need some help."
"Yeah of course! My address is (address), I'll be here."
"Thank you so much Kat"
"No problem!"
I hung up the phone and drove to the address she gave me.
* * *
I knocked on her door and she opened it wide so I could just walk in. When she saw my face she gasped. "Is it that bad?" I asked a little worried.
"What happened to your face!" she yelled while pulling me through the door.
I walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and nearly had the same reaction as Kat. My teeth were stained red, there was a large cut in my lip from where it split when Brennen punched me, and a black and blue bruise was already coloring the skin around my eye and on the bridge of my nose.
Kat had me sit on the couch, she gave me an ice pack to put on my eye and she took a washcloth with warm water on it to wash the blood from my lip.
"Who did this to you?" She asked, the one question I hoped wouldn't turn up. "No one" I didn't want to say it, though I was mad at him, more than mad, I didn't want to say his name for some reason. Maybe it was because I still loved him, the good side of him I'd seen the morning before ihop and the fight. He had never gotten like that. Brennen has never hit me. Sure he gets mad and yells and says things he regrets saying later but has never hit me, until today.
"Come on Y/N tell me."
"I don't want to..."
"Don't protect the person that did this to you."
I bit my lip where I didn't have the cut. "It was Brennen."
My eyes flickered to the sink in the kitchen so I didn't have to look at her directly. "What?" She was shocked, "he did this to you?"
I nodded and kept my eyes off her. "Why?"
I hesitated to answer but did anyway, leaving out the reasons and just said the core details. "We got into a fight and I hadn't talked to him in a week, I tried to talk things through but he got heated and punched me in the eye. Then called him a bitch and he hit me again, but I got a good on him too, made his nose bleed." I put a smug look on and Kat smiled. She finished and had let me keep the ice pack.
"Thank you again Kat" I said hugging her goodbye
"Anytime! You could stay if you'd like?" She offered
"No that's ok, I know Sam's coming home today, I'll leave you two alone considering you haven't seen each other face to face for two weeks" I smiled and started turning the handle when someone on the other side started turning it too. The door swung open and nearly hit me in the face.
The blond haired boy, Sam, walked through the door. "Sorry Y/N! Didn't mean to-" he stopped short and looked at the ice pack I had over my eye. "What's that?" He asked trying to look around it.
"Nothing just a little bruise I got"
"Your lip" he traced his finger under the cut and I pulled away. "I told you, it's nothing. I fell down the stairs and Kat helped me clean up."
Kat opened her mouth to protest but I looked at her sternly reminding her to stay quiet. "Kat..." Sam said looking at her worried. Kat looked back and forth between us and sighed, "sorry Y/N..." I sighed and excepted the defeat as she explained in a fast pace.
"Y/N and Brennen got in a fight, they didn't talk for awhile and today she tried to talk to him and he blew up in her face and punched her, then she called him a bitch and he punched her again... but she did say she did get a good punch at him too, maybe she broke his nose?" Kat suggested.
I closed my eyes when Sam started turning toward me, he spoke in a slow and 'trying to stay calm' tone, "Y/N... is this... true?"
"Yeah..." I replied taking the ice pack off my eye to show him the bruise.
He set his suit case down and grabbed my hand, "I'll be right back Kat" he kissed her and pulled me towards his car.
